Time Warner is cutting costs in a scramble to boost profits and justify its rejection of a takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch. But as a $482 million “programming impairment” charge shows, cost cutting can be expensive.

The announcement comes the same day that Turner Broadcasting inked a deal with the NBA for more than $1 billion per year for television rights to games. Turner had previously initiated voluntary buyouts to cut its workforce.

Vice Media, which started as a tiny free magazine in Montreal, raised $500 million in a pair of deals that value the company at $2.5 billion. The investments, which come after talks about a deal with Time Warner’s HLN cable network fell apart, were from A&E Networks and venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures. Each company invested $250 million in return for a 10% stake.

The investment banker turned media mogul turned New York City mayor is heading back to run the company he founded. And as Bloomberg expands its news operation into magazines, politics, and more, his first order of business should be to buy CNN.

One day after withdrawing their offer to buy Time Warner, Rupert Murdoch and top deputy Chase Carey made clear they have moved on from the deal. In making those comments, which came as Fox reported fiscal fourth quarter 2014 earnings, the company puts the pressure squarely on Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes to perform.

On the company’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Jeff Bewkes acknowledged that HBO GO has stiff competition in Netflix — and that the former will likely take a page from Netflix’s book in the future.

The streaming video service said it added more than 1 million subscribers internationally in the second quarter for a total of 13.8 million. It plans to launch in Germany, France, and other markets later this year.

Jeff Bewkes doesn’t like big media mergers, but that doesn’t mean he won’t make a good deal, from Rupert Murdoch or another bidder. He’ll do whatever creates the most value for shareholders, and now that most likely means selling.

The New York Times reported this morning that Murdoch made an $80 billion offer and is “determined” to buy Time Warner. Time Warner said today it had rejected the deal and “it was not in the best interests” to accept the deal or enter talks with Murdoch.

As the annual Sun Valley conference hosted by investment bank Allen & Co. gets underway in Idaho this week, the eyes of the media world will be on Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. After years of spinning off assets and slimming down his company, observers are wondering if Time Warner is a buyer or a seller. Does Bewkes want to buy a company like Discovery or sell to someone like Rupert Murdoch’s Fox?

In a bid to buy both cool and a digital media presence, Time Warner is reportedly talking to Vice Media about a deal. The details are murky, but could involve Time Warner infusing Vice with up to $1 billion in cash and spinning off its HLN cable news network. The reports, which value Vice at around $2 billion, follow Time Warner’s spin off of its legacy magazine unit, Time Inc.